Gunfire sounded over the car alarm behind me. I turned to see Nico with her gun trained on the Aussies, firing as she slowly eased towards the Chrysler 200. I knew it was hers!
The men fired back. A rapid hail of gunfire blitzed the side of the Honda and the car in front of it, and Nico fell to a low squat on the ground.
I popped my hat back on my head and duckwalked back up onto the curb and past the Honda, heading for her car. I knew she’d be trying to make a quick getaway, and if I let her leave without me, I’d be left in the hands of the Aussies. I knew if they got ahold of me, they certainly weren’t about to show me the sights on the island.
We got to her car at the same time. There was a break in the gunfire as they reloaded. She stood up and popped off a few more shots before she ran out of ammo. She dropped beside her driver’s-side door just as I’d reached an arm up to open it.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” she hollered over the sound of the return gunfire and the car alarm.
“I’m going with you.”
“The fuck you are.” She shoved me over and opened her door.
Fuck.
Squeezing the grip on my gun, I ran around the front of the car as I heard her engine firing up. I got off a couple of shots at the Aussies before I got ahold of the passenger door handle.
It was locked.
Fuck!
Bullets bit into the side of her car, narrowly missing me. The car began to reverse. I noticed that the rear passenger window was open. It was my only chance. I felt the car shudder when it smashed into the car behind it. Nico was forced to put it in drive to maneuver out of her tight parking space. When she did, I took the last opportunity I had and dove into the backseat through the open window.
“What the fuck, Drunk? Get out of my car,” she squealed as bullets peppered the side of her car.
With the lower half of my torso still hanging out the window, I felt something bite me in the ass. “Ahhh!” I screamed. “I think they shot me! They fucking shot me!”
Nico put the car in reverse again and now, finally free of the rest of the cars, she stepped on the gas and we drove down the street backwards as bullets shattered the passenger window and the right half of her windshield.
While she drove, I wiggled further into the car, reached across the backseat and grasped the door handle, dragging my lower body and legs in through the window. “Fucking hell, they shot me!” I screamed.
With her right hand on the steering wheel while still driving in reverse, she curled her left hand around her chest and aimed her gun at me. “What makes you think you’re any safer in here with me?”
“Because you’re out of bullets,” I said, sitting up in the backseat despite the fact that my ass hurt like hell.
“That’s only temporary,” she assured me. I caught her eyes flicking inadvertently towards the car’s glove box. When we got to the corner, in front of the liquor store, she peeled backwards into the parking lot, then, without coming to a complete stop, threw it into drive and took off like a shot.
Before she could go after more ammo, I flung myself headfirst between the seats and unlatched the glove box. Sure enough, that was where her stash was.
She struggled with me while she drove, and in an effort to get me to retreat into the backseat, she drove her thumb into my bullet wound.
“Ohhhh!” I howled. “Fuck! You fucking whore!”
The pain was excruciating, but I didn’t let it distract me from the fact that if she got her hands on the extra magazines, I’d either be promptly shot or deposited on the side of the road for the Aussies to handle.
I couldn’t let either happen.
So I let her do her worst, biting my bottom lip between my teeth to manage the pain while I began to toss everything from her glove box out the shattered window.
“What the hell are you doing, Drunk?” she bellowed. I could feel the car swerving as she leaned over me, trying to stop me. “Are you fucking kidding me? You asshole!”
When the glove box was finally emptied, I dragged the rest of my body into the front seat. I sat up, wincing in pain, and aimed my gun on her. “Yeah, well, I’ll say it again. You’re out of bullets. Lucky for me, I’m not. I don’t care where the hell you go, just drive.”
39
It was almost six thirty when Nico finally pulled her car into the motel parking lot and shut off the engine. Dusk had colored the island streets with a gritty blue-amber haze, and an eerie calm had settled over the streets. I’d insisted that she drive around longer than necessary just to make sure that the Aussies weren’t following us, and when I was sure we were safe, she finally took a discreet route back to the room she’d been staying in.
We hadn’t talked much in the car. She was still salty about the fact that I’d drained all of her ammo and her rental car had gotten shot up. I, of course, was dealing with the fact that I’d been shot and she’d body-slammed me onto the hood of a car.
So not only was my head throbbing like a mother, but my ass burned like hell too. It felt like I’d been beaned by a fast-pitch baseball. I badly wanted something to take the edge off, and then I wanted to crawl into a nice comfy bed and sleep until my plane left for America.
“So now what?” she asked me as we sat in silence in the parking lot.
I flicked the tip of the gun towards the motel. “Now we’re going to your room. You’re gonna take a look at my ass and see what you can do to patch me up.”
She let out a chortled laugh. “Like hell.”
I aimed my gun at her. “You were saying?”
She slammed the heels of her hands into the steering wheel and screamed. “Fuck you, Drunk! This is complete bullshit! You ruined everything, you know that? Now those halfwits know they were being watched. They’ll probably move, and it’ll take me a week to find out where they are. And by then it’ll probably be too late!”
“Too late for what?”
Her dark hair fell back against the headrest. She shook her head gently and then turned to look out her window in weary resignation. “Ugh, just fuck you.”
I lifted my brows. “Well, here’s an idea. First of all, I just want you to know that I’m willing to take you up on that very kind offer. You know, take one for the team. And second of all, while we’re talking about teams, how about you just let me in on whatever it is that you’re working on, and we’ll partner up and be on the same team?”
“Partner up? You think I need a goddamned partner?” she scoffed. “And if I did, why in God’s name do you think I would choose you, of all people?”
My jaw dropped. I touched the gun to my chest. “I’m hurt, Nico. I’m really hurt. I’m a cop, you know. I’d make an excellent partner.”
“You’re a fucking moron is what you are. To come walking down the street like some braindead clueless asshat…”
I nodded, “Yeah, yeah, easy. I get the picture. You don’t like me. Alright, well, I can’t be everybody’s favorite brand of cereal, you know. I already knew that. But that doesn’t mean you gotta want me dead or locked up in some island shithole prison, does it?”
She let out a guttural groan as she threw her head back against the seat back. “Ughhhh!”
I sat back in my seat too, and when the echoing sound of her groan faded away, the car fell silent. After what seemed like minutes, she turned to me. “Listen, Drunk, I’ll make you a deal.”
I was too exhausted to move my body as I replied, “I’m listening.”
“I’ll grab a first aid kit from the front desk, and we’ll dig out that bullet and patch up your ass good as new. Okay? Then I’ll load you back into the car and drive you back to your cushy resort and drop you off, and you can get a good night’s sleep.”
I was silent for a moment, waiting for the rest of the offer. “And then?”
“And then?” she repeated. “And then you’re not walking around with lead in your ass, and I get to go about my business cleaning up the mess that you just made for me.”
&nb
sp; I lifted an eyebrow as I turned to look at her. “You think I came out here just so you can get a look-see at my ass and then get me home in time for curfew? You’re fucking crazier than I thought.” I shook my head and pointed the gun at her. “No way, lady. I need answers. But, in all fairness to you, your plan started out on the right track with all that first aid kit stuff. So we’ll start there.” I gestured towards the door with my gun. “Now march.”
* * *
Nico Dominion didn’t have a particularly friendly bedside manner. In fact, quite the opposite. She seemed to take great joy in my yelps of pain. On a normal occasion, I might find a little pain in the bedroom to be kinky, but as I lay facedown on Nico’s musty-smelling motel bed with my pasty white cheeks exposed, I couldn’t help but cringe at every tiny touch.
“Oh, quit being such a baby,” she said as she dug the tweezers deeper into the fleshy mound of my cheek. “It’s really not as bad as you make it sound.”
I thunked the muzzle of the Glock against my skull and stared at her perfectly round ass in the mirror across from me. “Well, then, how about I shoot you in the ass and see how you like me digging for the bullet? I don’t think you’re actually trying to find the bullet, you know. I think you’re intentionally pulling out tiny pieces of my flesh just to seduce me.”
“Seduce you?” The words seemed to be spat out in the midst of a laugh. “Hardly.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, I think it’s all a part of your master plan. A little S&M before the main course. I already told you, no need for seduction. I’m willing to take one for the team.”
“Listen, Drunk, if I were trying to seduce you, you’d know it, alright? I’m trying to find the bullet. It seems to have lodged itself in there pretty good.”
“Sure it did,” I said, winking at her as she looked at me in the mirror.
My phone rang then. “Hand that to me, will ya?”
She stomped her foot down on the floor. “Damn it! How the hell did I get reduced to being your fucking nurse and personal assistant?”
I grinned at her as she handed me my phone. “Just luck, I guess. Drunk here.”
“Drunk! You’re alive!” Al’s voice poured out of the phone like fine whiskey, dignified and old.
“Barely.” I grimaced as Nico returned to her role of mean nurse.
“Barely? What the hell happened?”
“Eh, I met up with the CIA lady and she blew our cover—got us shot at and nearly killed.”
“Drunk!” I heard Nico suck in her breath behind me.
I waved a hand backwards to quiet her. “Shhh.”
“Well, are you alright?” Al said over my silencing of Nico.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Nico’s trying to get the bullet out now.”
“The bullet! You got shot?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s in my butt cheek. Nowhere serious. She thinks she’s going to be able to get the bullet out.”
“Drunk got shot,” I heard Al say on the other end.
“Who you talking to?”
“The guys.”
“Big Eddie and the guys?”
“Yeah. Gary wants to know if you still have his gun.”
My head and arms were draped over the foot of the bed. I lifted the gun and gave it a once-over. “Yeah. I still have it. Tell him I said thanks. It probably saved my life.”
“I told you it would.”
“Yeah, yeah. You find anything out over there?”
“Lots of stuff,” said Al. “Where should I start?”
“I don’t know. How’d the date go?”
“How’d the date go, Eddie?” asked Al. I could hear him mumbling, then he came back on the phone. “Eddie said she was a whole lot of woman. He’s not sure if he can handle her.”
“He picked Gladys?”
“Yeah. Gary took Ginger.”
“Figures.”
“The lunch theme was Fiesta Caliente. Artie showed up. You know, making the rounds, so I invited him to join us.”
“Oh yeah?” I was starting to feel like I was talking to my mother. She’d tell me all about her social events and who said what to whom, and I’d just throw out a few oh yeahs to make it sound like I was listening, all the while wondering if a person could be trained to say oh yeah in their sleep.
“Yeah, except Artie had a major allergic reaction to something in the food.”
“Did he?”
“Uh-huh. He couldn’t stop sneezing.”
“Wow.” I let out a yawn.
“Of course Gladys and Ginger thought they were big-time, you know, having dinner with the resort owner and all. That scored Eddie and Gary some extra points. Gary wants to go out again.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yeah. Oh, and before we went to dinner, Eddie cracked the file on that flashy thing.”
My mind, which had been slowly drifting into sleep mode, flittered awake. “What!”
“Yeah. He was able to open the file. It was encrypted, you know.”
“Al, I think you coulda led with that information. So what was it?”
“Some kind of a code.”
“For what?”
“Well, that’s the thing, we weren’t sure. Based on the software Eddie had to use to open the file, we have a sneaking suspicion that it was some kind of cryptocurrency code, but I had no idea. So after dinner, Artie sent Evie and the girls out with one of his employees on a private Jeep ride along the beach, and he, Eddie, Gary, and I all went back to the computer lab. We showed him the stuff.”
My hand tore through my hair and I gave it a solid yank. “What the hell, Al!” I muttered. “You can’t tell everyone on the fucking island about that!” Immediately, my eyes flickered up to the mirror to see if Nico had been paying attention. Sure enough, she looked at me curiously. I had to remember that I wasn’t alone.
“Yeah, I know, Drunk. But I trust Artie, and he’s working with the island cops on Jimmie’s murder. If there’s anyone that can get you out of this situation, it’s Artie. Plus he knows a lot more about cryptocurrency than I do.”
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming as Nico plucked something from my ass. “Ergh!” I growled.
“Drunk, you okay?” asked Al.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked, turning halfway around to look at Nico, who was wearing a smarmy grin.
She held a pellet between her tweezers. “I got the bullet!”
“That tiny little thing?” Then my head lolled forward. My face flushed hot and I felt like I might be sick. “Oh my God.”
“What? What?” Al’s voice called out.
“She got the bullet. Keep talking,” I breathed, trying hard not to pass out.
“Okay, so, we showed Artie the rest of the things in the bag—and, Drunk, he knew what the other two things were!”
“He did?” My heart began to hammer in my ears then. “Quit playing around, Al. What are they?”
40
“He called them cold storage keys.”
I glanced up at the mirror again. Nico didn’t seem to be listening. Still, I couldn’t risk saying much. “What’s that?”
“I’m not exactly sure right now, but it’s definitely cryptocurrency related. He said the flashy thing might be one too, but he didn’t know for sure, so he called Ozzy over to take a look at it. You know he went to college for computers.”
“Yeah, he mentioned that.” I let my head fall into my hand. They’d fucking gotten Ozzy Messina involved. The dumbest fucking kid on the island now had information that, if let out of the bag, could wind up getting me killed. “Al, I can’t believe it.”
“I know, right? We’re gonna get this figured out before you even get back.”
I wanted to scream again, and not because of the literal pain in my ass, but because of the figurative one. “Listen, Al, you got any other information to share? Because I gotta go.” I needed the stiffest fucking drink to cure the tension that was now racking my entire body.
“Oh, y
eah. One more thing. Artie gave me that maid’s address. You want it?”
Finally! A break that was usable information. “Yeah, I want it!”
“Okay. I’ll have Eddie text it to you when I get off the phone.”
I sighed. “Thanks, Al.”
“Yeah. No problem. When are you coming back?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t exactly sure. I still didn’t have a clear plan. I'd been quite literally flying by the seat of my pants, and now my pants had a hole in them. “I don’t know, Al. I’ll have to be in touch, okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey Al. Do me a favor?”
“Yeah?”
“Quit involving other people in this, alright?”
“Oh, yeah, for sure. We don’t want any information falling into the hands of the wrong person.”
“Exactly.”
Al chuckled. “Alright, then. I’ll let you go. Be safe, okay? Don’t take any more bullets.”
“I’ll try not to.” I hung up the phone and tossed it on the floor in front of me, perturbed that Al had gotten Artie and Ozzy involved. There were now nine people that knew that Jimmie had in fact left something in my suitcase, and I wasn’t sure if I could trust a single one of them to keep the secret.
“What was that all about?” asked Nico the second the phone hit the tile floor.
I reared back and looked at my ass. She’d poured some antiseptic on it and bandaged it up with gauze, and now it stung as if she’d packed salt into the open wound.
“None of your beeswax,” I muttered.
She rolled her eyes and began to clean up the mess.
I tried to roll off the bed in a dignified fashion, without springing Little Drunk on her.
“You know, you’re such an asshole.”
I pulled my underwear up and faced her. “I’m such an asshole? Are you kidding me?” I stopped myself from refreshing her memory on the ass whoopings she’d inflicted on me since I’d met her.
She fired an arm out towards the window, pointing. “You skip down that street today like a kid licking a fucking lollipop and then blow my cover, get shot, get my car shot, make me pull the fucking bullet out of your ass, and then you get some kind of information and won’t share it with me. You’re an asshole, Drunk. I’m over it.”
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